Coming out of Psalms, we’ve been seeing we need to trust God by taking His life and making it our own; but what does that look like? Joshua is the story of God’s people learning to do this, with all their highs and lows. Ch.1 starts by showing how God calls His people to cling to and practice His nature by fixating on who He is.

Happy Easter all! As we celebrate Jesus’ life, death, & resurrection today, we’ll tie in everything we’ve learned in Psalms to Jesus: that trusting in Jesus IS trusting in God. Psalm 130 will show us I can trust God because He knows me and forgives me; therefore, I’ll take up His life as my own.

On Palm Sunday, where we celebrate the arrival of our King in Jesus, it’s worth asking… how do I trust Him as my King? We often fight Jesus for the throne of our lives: Psalm 2 will how us trusting God means realizing I want the throne, letting God reclaim His throne, and surrendering my throne and my life to Jesus.

As we’ve been seeing who God is/what He’s done for us, it’s hard to imagine that God actually has the power to do it all. What does it mean that He has “authority” over our lives? Psalm 110 shows us that trusting God means trusting Jesus has authority over how we live and how we’re made right with God.

Before you listen to this one, take a moment & answer these 3 questions: 1) What has God done for you? 2) How does God work with you? 3) What has God promised you? Psalm 103 may show us we’re trying to trust a God we don’t know as well as we think we do as David provides the answers for each of these.

When we’re putting our trust in God, what are we choosing to do? And what are we getting from Him? We often don’t trustGod I because we don’t know the answers to these two key questions. Ps. 91 uncovers the connection: when we choose to make God our shelter and stronghold, He promises we’ll get Him and His life.

We've been approaching Psalms as the journal into the heart of God’s people as they learn to trust Him in differentseasons of life because trusting God isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” thing. This week, Associate Pastor John Marshal traces this theme all over the New Testament to show how we are “saints” not by our bodies or souls but by our spirit. In Jesus, God gives us a new spirit, then starts to work on “sanctifying” our bodies/souls.

Have you ever heard a Christian say something like, “Who God is shapes what I do?” This is one of those “almost-truths” that sounds great at face value, but it’s missing a key step in the middle. Psalm 85 will fill in the middle piece we desperately need when learning to trust God: “Who God is shapes _ shapes what I do.”

One issue we face in trying to trust God is ending up making it about US: how am I growing to get what I need to trust God with MY life. Psalm 66 shows the internal work of faith from God’s perspective: “Who I am and what I do molds you because I want it to; I will mold you all, you see, when you finally come to me.”

There’s an underlying theme that runs throughout the Psalms we need to bring to the forefront today: trusting God is FIRST an internal work, THEN an external one. Psalms 42 & 43 show trusting God takes redirecting our instinct to bring our soul to God before we attempt fixing the physical problems around us.